SteelOrbis Twitter

Advertisement

HRC prices soften in EU market

With the European Commission’s decision not to impose any provisional antidumping duties on HRC imports from five countries, CIS-based HRC suppliers have started giving offers to the EU and HRC prices in the EU market have softened, while EU domestic flat steel demand has weakened further. The final decision in the antidumping duty investigation is scheduled for October 7, and so market sources expect that up to mid-August Russian, Ukrainian and Iranian HRC suppliers who had not been active in the European market for a long while will increase their sales to the EU. After the Easter holiday, HRC prices in the EU are expected to continue falling given the softening of global HRC prices in line with the return of Chinese players to the export markets.

Over the past week, local European cold rolled coil (CRC) and hot dip galvanized (HDG) prices have remained at €640-700/mt ($678-742/mt) and €640-700/mt ($678-742/mt), while HRC prices have declined by $20/mt week on week to €520-570/mt ($551-604/mt), all ex-works.

Meantime, HRC offers given to the EU from India and Turkey have softened by $10/mt to $500-510/mt FOB and $515-520/mt FOB, respectively, given the declines in global HRC prices and ex-CIS HRC offers to EU standing at $490/mt FOB.